Feminist Art and Popular Music

41 Franklin Street Stamford, CT 06901 [email protected] franklinstreetworks.org

GALLERY HOURS Tuesday–Sunday Noon–5:00pm

CAFE HOURS Tuesday–Friday 10:00am–5:00pm Saturday–Sunday 9:00am–5:00pm FEMINIST ART AND POPULAR MUSIC

This exhibition is made possible in part by the Fairfield County’s Community Foundation. In-kind sponsor Hampton Inn & Suites, Stamford, CT. FEMINIST ART AND POPULAR MUSIC

JULY 23, 2016–JANUARY 1, 2017 CURATED BY MARIA ELENA BUSZEK

Exhibiting Artists: Damali Abrams, Alice Bag, DISBAND, Wynne Greenwood (AKA Tracy + the Plastics), Eleanor King, Ann Magnuson, Shizu Saldamando, and Xaviera Simmons. FEMINIST ART AND POPULAR MUSIC

JULY 23, 2016–JANUARY 1, 2017 CURATED BY MARIA ELENA BUSZEK

Exhibiting Artists: Damali Abrams, Alice Bag, DISBAND, Wynne Greenwood (AKA Tracy + the Plastics), Eleanor King, Ann Magnuson, Shizu Saldamando, and Xaviera Simmons. CURATOR ESSAY CURATOR ESSAY

(tracy).” In Greenwood’s video “Libber”—first Introduction:art, circulated think-pieces and manifestos, but created as part of the LTTR feminist collective’s were also premised on the feminist adage “the series of zines and salons—she simplifies the Somepersonal High/Low is the political.” Context As Kathleen in Hanna slippery live-vs.-recorded sensibility of a Tracy aasserted Post-binary in her “Riot Landscape Grrrl Manifesto” (itself first + The Plastics performance with her use of a published in her band Bikini Kill’s zine in 1991), single “figure” (Greenwood) who accompanies a these personal stories “help us gain the strength Terri C Smith recorded song with live percussion, as her image and sense of community that we need in order to Creative Director Franklin Street Works is transformed into and accompanied by a series figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, of different characters: animals, marching bands, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, Metallica’s James Hetfield, Gloria Steinem. The anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our title of the piece relates to the popular ‘70s slang own lives.” In Abrams’ zine, she reaches back to for feminists, “women’s libber,” but explores her own writing and diaries from the Riot Grrrl very contemporary ideas of feminist identity era, when she was too young to tap into that formation. In essence, “Libber” is a portrait zeitgeist, but seems to recognize and analyze of the various, even contradictory, collaged- in her own coming-of-age writings and idols a

together nature of our selves, and suggests that similar sensibility that she organizes in Around in the journey of discovering and trying on these the Way Girl (taking the name of a romantic different identities, we find our communities— L.L. Cool J rap about the ideal black woman). and, ideally, recognize and respect the diversity Bouncing across decades of musical and feminist of their make-up, even when rallying together for references—in the style of her myriad, pop- a common cause. culture inspired video, performance, and collage work—Abrams’ zine is a palpable reminder of how Last spring I emailed guest curator Maria Elena Artist D a m a l i A b r a m s was also influenced the legacies of both continue to inspire emerging Buszek, approaching her about the possibly of by Riot Grrrl in her 2014 zine Around the Way artists today. creating a project for Franklin Street Works. Girl, which combines the fanzine, the broadsheet, I learned about her work seeking texts on the and the confessional in a style typical to the intersection of feminism and music for a class movement’s all-important zines—before the I was teaching, prompting a mutual friend to advent and popularization of the internet, the connect us. After exploring Buszek’s work as manner in which its participants met and a published author, teacher and curator, communicated with one another. Riot Grrrl zines I was hooked. promoted bands, sold mail-order music and CURATOR ESSAY CURATOR ESSAY

(tracy).” In Greenwood’s video “Libber”—first Introduction:art, circulated think-pieces and manifestos, but created as part of the LTTR feminist collective’s were also premised on the feminist adage “the series of zines and salons—she simplifies the Somepersonal High/Lowis the political.” Context As Kathleen in Hanna slippery live-vs.-recorded sensibility of a Tracy asserteda Post-binary in her “Riot Landscape Grrrl Manifesto” (itself first + The Plastics performance with her use of a published in her band Bikini Kill’s zine in 1991), single “figure” (Greenwood) who accompanies a these personal stories “help us gain the strength Terri C Smith recorded song with live percussion, as her image and sense of community that we need in order to Creative Director Franklin Street Works is transformed into and accompanied by a series figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, of different characters: animals, marching bands, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, Metallica’s James Hetfield, Gloria Steinem. The anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our title of the piece relates to the popular ‘70s slang own lives.” In Abrams’ zine, she reaches back to for feminists, “women’s libber,” but explores her own writing and diaries from the Riot Grrrl very contemporary ideas of feminist identity era, when she was too young to tap into that formation. In essence, “Libber” is a portrait zeitgeist, but seems to recognize and analyze of the various, even contradictory, collaged- in her own coming-of-age writings and idols a

Irecently, found her more writing directly refreshing incorporated for its ability music to into Onedifferent high profileways, Record case ofSteps popular (To theculture’s Glass Ceiling) conveyher work rigorous in collaborations thinking about with popmusicians culture, such art negativeand Redacted reception Records when (Come allowed Up intoFrom the the art Back) history,as Jaleel and Bunton feminism, and Kyp among Bunton other from topics, TV on in the a worldsimultaneously springs to bring mind. together I recall fromand obscure my day asthe a conversationalRadio and Ife Mora tone on that her made Thundersnow me feel like Road I was youngrecordings curator of decades’ the scuttlebutt worth ofaround popular MOMA’s female enjoyingproject, whoselunch or sound talking pieces over werea project compiled with aon 1991recording survey artists. show curated The pieces by Kirk at once Varnedoe, document wickedlya 2010 LP smart, of the atsame times name acerbically by Merge funny, Records. friend. whichthese women’swas titled, efforts quite andstraightforwardly, take away their High & IOf couldn’t late, she help has but begun wonder exploring how this new attitude directions Lowidentities. Its aim in wasways to typical draw connectionsto the fickle betweenpop-music towardin performance, her reader collaboration, would translate and into community an modernismlandscape—a and compressed popular culture. experience In contemplating of a trip exhibitionthrough happenings and wanted inspired that exhibition by free jazz to happen and thisto the introductory used record text, stores I was and curious flea tomarkets revisit from Cageanat Franklin chance Street operations. Works! We agreed that mining thatwhose exhibition’s mountains reception, of now-unfashionable which I vaguely and the feminist aspects of Buszek’s current book rememberedobsolete recordings as being King almost derives universally her materials. negative. researchLike Simmons’ for The incorporation Art of Noise, of which, album according covers in A New Criterion article by Hilton Kramer titled toher the installations author, “explores and photographs, the ties between E l e a n o r “TheW y nVarnedoe n e G r e debacle: e n w o o dMOMA’s is perhaps New ‘Low,’”best known contemporaryK i n g ’s work activistalso utilizes art and music popular recordings music,” isamong representative. music fans Inas it, the Kramer one-woman writes: band wasand thehow way they to play go. on our memory, to very Tracy + The Plastics, a project inspired by the different effect. Her art about music is abstract RiotThere Grrrl aremovement’s also other, do-it-yourself less theoretical philosophy Inand working evocative, on this even exhibition, though she I became literally even uses andrea¬sons legacy of that using popular the punk culture venue is as so a dear space to moreobjects impressed of recorded with music Buszsek’s such uncannyas LPs and and CDs for consciousness-raisingthe hearts of the postmodernists: and discussion. they Thelike refreshingto make her ability work—stacking to mix it up them in the unrecognizably ring with “members”it so much of Tracymore +than the theyPlastics—slightly like real art, bossythey contemporaryinto pillars and art, tubes, feminism, or tracing activism their formsand pop frontare woman so much Tracy, more contentious at home with keyboardist it, so much culture.into monumental, Much of her Spirograph-like writing and curatorial drawings. In Nikki,more and at spaced-out ease with its percussionist simplistic emotions Cola, and workthese smashes works’ Minimalist-inspired perceived walls between forms, highshe is whoone-dimensional “play all the instruments ideas.” It and may sing” be that on anthe andnonetheless low via (as counting she so eloquentlyon the uncanny put it familiarity in her band’simmer¬sion albums—appear in the world in performances of popular culture as essayof these “Her mediums’ Life Was standardized Saved By Rock dimensions and Roll: Greenwoodinduces anperforming illusion of live eternal as Tracy youth onstage, in these Towardthat her a audiences Feminist Punk have Ethic/Aesthetic”) likely intimately, ifher interactingpost¬modernist with Nikki curators, and Cola scholars, as pre-recorded and willingnessabsent-mindedly “to track handled … artists’ throughout references their lives. videocritics projections. who have Greenwood lately disfigured has written the study of of toDrawing the street on that as to sensibility the studio.” of her Sometimes work, she has the modernband’s underlying art with the goal: materials “A Tracy that and are the given characterizedcreated two new as “blurring”works for Dangerthe lines Came between Smiling Plasticspriority performance in the “High attempts & Low” show—graffiti,to destroy the “high”relating and not “low,” just to this the approach objects themselves—vinyl is not always hierarchicaladvertis¬ing, dynamics comic of strips, mass etmedia’s al say/see metrecordings with positive and their feedback album incovers—but the art world the spaces by placing as much importance on the orwomen academia. artists who recorded them. In their own video images (the plastics) as the live performer CURATORINTRODUCTION ESSAY CURATORINTRODUCTION ESSAY

recently,I found her more writing directly refreshing incorporated for its ability music to into differentOne high ways,profile Record case ofSteps popular (To the culture’s Glass Ceiling) herconvey work rigorous in collaborations thinking about with popmusicians culture, such art negativeand Redacted reception Records when (Come allowed Up Frominto the the art Back) ashistory, Jaleel and Bunton feminism, and Kyp among Bunton other from topics, TV on in the a simultaneouslyworld springs to bring mind. together I recall fromand obscure my day asthe a Radioconversational and Ife Mora tone on that her made Thundersnow me feel like Road I was recordingsyoung curator of decades’ the scuttlebutt worth ofaround popular MOMA’s female project,enjoying whoselunch or sound talking pieces over were a project compiled with aon 1991recording survey artists. show curatedThe pieces by Kirkat once Varnedoe, document awickedly 2010 LP smart, of the atsame times name acerbically by Merge funny, Records. friend. thesewhich women’swas titled, efforts quite andstraightforwardly, take away their High & OfI couldn’t late, she help has but begun wonder exploring how thisnew attitude directions identitiesLow. Its aim in wasways to typical draw connectionsto the fickle betweenpop-music intoward performance, her reader collaboration, would translate and into community an landscape—amodernism and compressed popular culture. experience In contemplating of a trip throughexhibition happenings and wanted inspired that exhibition by free jazz to happenand tothis the introductory used record text, stores I was and curious flea tomarkets revisit from Cageanat Franklin chance Street operations. Works! We agreed that mining whosethat exhibition’s mountains reception, of now-unfashionable which I vaguely and the feminist aspects of Buszek’s current book obsoleteremembered recordings as being King almost derives universally her materials. negative. Likeresearch Simmons’ for The incorporation Art of Noise, of which, album according covers in A New Criterion article by Hilton Kramer titled herto the installations author, “explores and photographs, the ties between E l e a n o r “TheW y n Varnedoe n e G r e debacle: e n w o o dMOMA’s is perhaps New ‘Low,’”best known Kcontemporary i n g ’s work activistalso utilizes art and music popular recordings music,” amongis representative. music fans Inas it,the Kramer one-woman writes: band andwas howthe way they to play go. on our memory, to very Tracy + The Plastics, a project inspired by the different effect. Her art about music is abstract RiotThere Grrrl aremovement’s also other, do-it-yourself less theoretical philosophy andIn working evocative, on this even exhibition, though she I became literally even uses andrea¬sons legacy of thatusing popular the punk culture venue is as so a dear space to objectsmore impressed of recorded with music Buszsek’s such uncannyas LPs and and CDs for consciousness-raisingthe hearts of the postmodernists: and discussion. they Thelike torefreshing make her ability work—stacking to mix it up them in the unrecognizably ring with “members”it so much of Tracymore +than the theyPlastics—slightly like real art, bossy they intocontemporary pillars and art,tubes, feminism, or tracing activism their formsand pop frontare woman so much Tracy, more contentious at home with keyboardist it, so much intoculture. monumental, Much of her Spirograph-like writing and curatorial drawings. In Nikki,more and at spaced-out ease with its percussionist simplistic emotions Cola, and thesework smashesworks’ Minimalist-inspired perceived walls between forms, highshe is whoone-dimensional “play all the instruments ideas.” It and may sing” be that on anthe nonethelessand low via (as counting she so eloquentlyon the uncanny put it familiarity in her band’simmer¬sion albums—appear in the world in performances of popular culture as ofessay these “Her mediums’ Life Was standardized Saved By Rock dimensions and Roll: Greenwoodinduces anperforming illusion of live eternal as Tracy youth onstage, in these Towardthat her a audiences Feminist Punk have Ethic/Aesthetic”)likely intimately, ifher interactingpost¬modernist with Nikki curators, and Cola scholars, as pre-recorded and absent-mindedlywillingness “to track handled … artists’ throughout references their lives. videocritics projections. who have Greenwood lately disfigured has written the study of of Drawingto the street on that as tosensibility the studio.” of her Sometimes work, she has the modernband’s underlying art with the goal: materials “A Tracy that and are the given createdcharacterized two new as “blurring”works for Danger the lines Came between Smiling Plasticspriority performance in the “High attempts & Low” show—graffiti,to destroy the “high”relating and not “low,” just to this the approach objects themselves—vinyl is not always hierarchicaladvertis¬ing, dynamics comic of strips, mass etmedia’s al say/see recordingsmet with positive and their feedback album covers—butin the art world the spaces by placing as much importance on the womenor academia. artists who recorded them. In their own video images (the plastics) as the live performer INTRODUCTIONCURATOR ESSAY INTRODUCTIONCURATOR ESSAY

Kramer’sknown, even words lionized “real professionalart” and “simplistic and personal WhileLos Crudos’ critics queer,and scholars Latin@ seem frontman to be Martin slower on emotionsabusiveness and toward one-dimensional its members ideas” during resonate their hit- theSorrondeguy, uptake, artists demanding have a theirlong, placerich history in punk’s of withmaking this years tendency working of thetogether.) art world to elevate understandingpantheon. that pop-cultural influences are some kinds of production to high art and not a “diversion” but an effective tool. From Artistdenigrate Shizu other Saldamando endeavors such aspays “graffiti, direct DADA’sXaviera nonsensical Simmons’ performances work in Danger in the earlyCame advertising,homage to Alice comic Bag strips, in her et print al,” asAlice being Bag/Martin twentiethSmiling similarly century, directs to Pop attention Art’s 1960s to women soup cans lessCrudo sophisticated, Paño, a collaboration less nuanced with or the not Maricón andin music comic history, book paintings,in photographs to the that postmodernists’ conjure Collective,aesthetically which important. brings togetherThere is also artists a palpable and inclusionarylegendary African-American pastiche of street, musicians. studio and Simmons fearDJs toin produceKramer’s parties, text that performances, by somehow rubbing zines, commerce,has long addressed artists have the relevanceplowed right of music through this shouldersand merch with that the create masses safe the spaces “study and of raise modern high/lowand music division history to in critique,her artwork—nowhere comment on and/ art”awareness can become for the “disfigured,” queer Chican@ ruining community the in ormore expand directly our thanthinking in her about evolving what installation art should enterpriseSouthern California. altogether. Saldamando is perhaps most firstbe and dubbed what How it can To do. Break Not Youronly doOwn they Heart blur the renowned for her striking, photo-realistic images lines,when butit debuted they dismantle in 2006. the In the a priori piece’s assumption various Inof academia,friends in and Maria vignettes Elena Buszek from the argues subcultures in thatmanifestations, these either-or Simmons divisions exhibited even exist floor-—ours is “Hershe grew Life Was up as Saved part byof inRock San and Francisco Roll” that and fearful Los ato-ceiling “post-binary” installations world. of album covers by Angeles—atattitudes like concerts, Kramer’s bars, can alsoand bebackyard found inparties— the black artists, which formed a salon in which hallsas seen of universitiesin the drawing and La colleges: Ana with Absu Tshirt. Today,communities so much were scholarship invited to and play, dialogue practice, uses or Saldamando’s meticulously-crafted portraits ansimply understanding listen to music, of interconnectedness and Simmons DJ’ed as from seekArt visibility historians’ for those frequent ordinary mistrust people of whose ither relates own vast to personal record collection. identities, Insocial the 2009 presencecontemporary is often marginalized, art in general, or and simply pop erasedculture communities,photographs exhibited and more, here, as their Simmons starting literally point. fromin the particular scenes […]they speaks create. more Bag’s broadly autobiography, to Intakes feminism her collection these interlocking “out into the phenomena world,” with for example,the academy’s came fear into ofbeing the personal,at a moment the when— aresubjects sometimes who take viewed on the through cover-artists’ the lens identitiesof regardlessphenomenological, of abundant theevidence physical to theas somehow contrary— “intersectionalism.”in seemingly anachronistic Theories settings—urbane about “emergence” severalexisting high-profile in opposition histories to the and objective, exhibitions the of inNina the Simone sciences before explore a weathered, how once ashake-shingle system punk,empirical, No Wave, the and intellectual. post-punk Time rock andmusic and reachescabin, raunchy a certain R&B level comedienne of complexity, Millie outcomes Jackson art wereagain, catching I am blindsided the attention by the of responses the popular of ofin frontnew influences of rolling sand being dunes—as introduced reminders cannot ofbe press,my writtencolleagues by and for whomcentered the almostpop-cultural exclusively predicted.the ways that Perhaps these oneartists of theboth longest “become practices us” on theinfluences straight, I whitediscuss men alongside in these contemporary scenes. In ofwhen contemplating their music interconnectednesstransforms our lives, is and how linefeminist with this, art and – many like all times, the emerging work with artists which in Buddhism.we transform So themuch meaning so that of contemporary their music as we Dangerthey Came are familiar Smiling –, areSaldamando viewed as pays a shocking homage peacelisten to activist, or associate poet and them Buddhist with deeply monk personal Thich to often-forgottendiscovery or questionable predecessors diversion. like Bag and Nhatexperiences Hanh created and places. his own Simmons term to has describe more CURATORINTRODUCTION ESSAY CURATORINTRODUCTION ESSAY

known,Kramer’s even words lionized “real professionalart” and “simplistic and personal LosWhile Crudos’ critics queer, and scholars Latin@ seem frontman to be Martin slower on abusivenessemotions and toward one-dimensional its members ideas” during resonate their hit- Sorrondeguy,the uptake, artists demanding have a theirlong, placerich history in punk’s of makingwith this years tendency working of thetogether.) art world to elevate pantheon.understanding that pop-cultural influences are some kinds of production to high art and not a “diversion” but an effective tool. From Artistdenigrate Shizu other Saldamando endeavors such aspays “graffiti, direct XavieraDADA’s nonsensical Simmons’ performances work in Danger in the earlyCame homageadvertising, to Alice comic Bag strips, in her et print al,” asAlice being Bag/Martin Smilingtwentieth similarly century, directs to Pop attention Art’s 1960s to women soup cans Crudoless sophisticated, Paño, a collaboration less nuanced with or the not Maricón inand music comic history, book paintings,in photographs to the that postmodernists’ conjure Collective,aesthetically which important. brings togetherThere is also artists a palpable and legendaryinclusionary African-American pastiche of street, musicians. studio and Simmons DJsfear toin produceKramer’s parties, text that performances, by somehow rubbing zines, hascommerce, long addressed artists have the relevanceplowed right of music through this andshoulders merch with that the create masses safe the spaces “study and of raise modern andhigh/low music division history toin critique,her artwork—nowhere comment on and/ awarenessart” can become for the “disfigured,” queer Chican@ ruining community the in moreor expand directly our thanthinking in her about evolving what installation art should Southernenterprise California. altogether. Saldamando is perhaps most firstbe and dubbed what How it can To do. Break Not Youronly Owndo they Heart blur the renowned for her striking, photo-realistic images whenlines, itbut debuted they dismantle in 2006. theIn the a priori piece’s assumption various ofIn academia,friends in and Maria vignettes Elena Buszek from the argues subcultures in manifestations,that these either-or Simmons divisions exhibited even existfloor-—ours is “Hershe grew Life Wasup as Saved part byof inRock San and Francisco Roll” that and fearful Los to-ceilinga “post-binary” installations world. of album covers by Angeles—atattitudes like concerts, Kramer’s bars, can alsoand backyardbe found inparties— the black artists, which formed a salon in which ashalls seen of universitiesin the drawing and La colleges: Ana with Absu Tshirt. Today,communities so much were scholarship invited to and play, dialogue practice, uses or Saldamando’s meticulously-crafted portraits simplyan understanding listen to music, of interconnectedness and Simmons DJ’ed as from seekArt visibility historians’ for those frequent ordinary mistrust people of whose herit relates own vast to personal record collection. identities, Insocial the 2009 presencecontemporary is often marginalized, art in general, or and simply pop erased culture photographscommunities, exhibited and more, here, as their Simmons starting literally point. fromin the particular scenes they[…] speaks create. more Bag’s broadly autobiography, to takesIn feminism her collection these interlocking “out into the phenomena world,” with for example,the academy’s came fearinto ofbeing the personal,at a moment the when— subjectsare sometimes who take viewed on the through cover-artists’ the lens identitiesof regardlessphenomenological, of abundant theevidence physical to theas somehow contrary— “intersectionalism.”in seemingly anachronistic Theories settings—urbane about “emergence” severalexisting high-profile in opposition histories to the and objective, exhibitions the of Ninain the Simone sciences before explore a weathered, how once ashake-shingle system punk,empirical, No Wave, the and intellectual. post-punk Time rock andmusic and cabin,reaches raunchy a certain R&B level comedienne of complexity, Millie outcomes Jackson art wereagain, catching I am blindsided the attention by the of responses the popular of inof frontnew influences of rolling sand being dunes—as introduced reminders cannot ofbe press,my writtencolleagues by and for centeredwhom the almost pop-cultural exclusively thepredicted. ways that Perhaps these oneartists of boththe longest “become practices us” on theinfluences straight, I whitediscuss men alongside in these contemporary scenes. In whenof contemplating their music interconnectednesstransforms our lives, is and how line feministwith this, art and – many like all times, the emerging work with artists which in weBuddhism. transform So themuch meaning so that of contemporary their music as we Dangerthey Came are familiar Smiling –, Saldamandoare viewed as pays a shocking homage listenpeace to activist, or associate poet and them Buddhist with deeply monk personal Thich to often-forgottendiscovery or questionable predecessors diversion. like Bag and experiencesNhat Hanh created and places. his own Simmons term to has describe more INTRODUCTIONCURATOR ESSAY INTRODUCTIONCURATOR ESSAY

howperformance, there is no and separation comedy atto allcelebrate with his women’s Iof am The so Gun grateful Club to and Maria Sisters Elena of BuszekMercy), for Bag’s bringing wordunsung “inter-are.” roles in society. The video pieces Made 2011this fluid,autobiography irreverent Violence and rigorous Girl carefully exhibition to for TV and Vandemonium both feature the kinds Franklinand pointedly Street documents Works. The the show relevance expands of on Theof kitschy inter-are pop-culture nature of characterscontemporary that art, Magnuson ourwomen, work queers, in asking and what Latin@s contemporary in building art the can popwas well-knownculture, and for feminism performing is alive at andvenues well like in be,very what foundations it can look of Californialike, what punk.it can Evenarticulate, as DangerClub 57, Came where Smiling she was. Eleanor also its King’s first curatorrecord of butshe mostprofessionally importantly pulled how away its presence from the can scene shift sleevesevents and of women’s exhibitions. albums Magnuson become mined paintings, the ourto study thinking, philosophy challenging and become the status a teacher, quo in an she yetmargins are displayed of pop culture with a for nod funny, to retail powerful, via shelves and inclusionarycontinued performing dialogue between in bands artistslike Castration and visitors. vs.rebellious frames. women Alice Bag to riffsbring on center 1960s stage: popular talk- Squad and (with transgender feminist art- musicshow hosts, to comment televangelists, on violence heavy-metal against women. hellions, activist Vaginal Davis) Cholita!, “trying to give Theand psychedelicnew-age goddesses. sets of some A gifted children’s singer shows, and feminism and femininity a much-needed punk 80ssongwriter, drug culture, Magnuson religious was conformity,a founding member and more of rock makeover.” She also took up painting, arethe tackledall-female with band humor Pulsallama and absurdity (which ingrew Ann out of and began a series of portraits of many of the Magnuson’sClub 57’s “Junior Vandemonium League,” the(and Ladies pop singer Auxiliary Meat of women featured in her online Women in L.A. Loafthe Lower plays herEast beau!). Side) and The half connection of the psych-rock between Punk Archive (http://alicebag.com/women-in- howduo Bongwater.the music we As listen such, to music contributes factored to heavily how la-punk/), which she began exhibiting in 2014. weinto view many the of world her performances, is indicated in boththe large-scale literally and In Danger Came Smiling, the exhibition catches photographsas a culture with where exciting Xaviera feminine Simmons archetypes stands in to up with Bag in 2016 with the video for the song differentreference. topographies With Vandemonium holding iconicMagnuson’s women’s pop- “He’s So Sorry,” from her recently-released albumscultural in inspirations front of her came face. full-circle, Activism, feminismperforming eponymous solo debut. Both the look and sound anda grab-bag music are of charactersaccompanied she’d by honeda drumbeat in clubs and of the video speak to layers of references from humorousand performance-art phrases about spaces self-exploration for over a decade and in women’s music history. On the one hand, “He’s protestthis truly in “made-for-TV” Wynne Greenwood’s special video commissioned Libber. So Sorry” celebrates the working-class women Damaliand broadcast Abram’s by zine HBO is ain nod 1987. to riot grrrl’s third of color in glamorous, post-WWII “girl groups” wave feminism and that movement’s sharing of like The Ronettes, as well as their inspiration to Atthe the personal same time as a asform NYC’s of activism. downtown And scene lastly, subsequent generations of women musicians; on DISBAND’semerged, Los core Angeles tenet thatwas theynurturing are a itsband own where the other, the song’s theme of domestic violence nofeminist one plays punk instruments community, is led about by trailblazers as punk rock like as is a reminder of the ugly, behind-the-scenes Chican@it gets! A l i c e B a g (born Alicia Armendariz). realities these women often endured breaking Co-founder of the legendary L.A. band The through in the music industry. (In the case of Bags (with best friend Patricia Morrison, later The Ronettes, producer Phil Spector’s well- CURATORINTRODUCTION ESSAY CURATORINTRODUCTION ESSAY

performance,how there is no and separation comedy toat allcelebrate with his women’s ofI am The so Gun grateful Club to and Maria Sisters Elena of BuszekMercy), for Bag’s bringing unsungword “inter-are.” roles in society. The video pieces Made 2011this fluid,autobiography irreverent Violence and rigorous Girl carefully exhibition to for TV and Vandemonium both feature the kinds andFranklin pointedly Street documents Works. The the show relevance expands of on Theof kitschy inter-are pop-culture nature of characterscontemporary that art, Magnuson women,our work queers, in asking and what Latin@s contemporary in building art the can waspop well-knownculture, and for feminism performing is alive at andvenues well like in verybe, what foundations it can look of Californialike, what punk.it can Evenarticulate, as ClubDanger 57, Came where Smiling she was. Eleanor also its King’sfirst curatorrecord of shebut mostprofessionally importantly pulled how away its presence from the can scene shift eventssleeves and of women’s exhibitions. albums Magnuson become mined paintings, the toour study thinking, philosophy challenging and become the status a teacher, quo in an she marginsyet are displayed of pop culture with a for nod funny, to retail powerful, via shelves and continuedinclusionary performing dialogue between in bands artistslike Castration and visitors. rebelliousvs. frames. women Alice Bag to bringriffs on center 1960s stage: popular talk- Squad and (with transgender feminist art- showmusic hosts, to comment televangelists, on violence heavy-metal against women. hellions, activist Vaginal Davis) Cholita!, “trying to give Theand psychedelicnew-age goddesses. sets of some A gifted children’s singer shows,and feminism and femininity a much-needed punk songwriter,80s drug culture, Magnuson religious was aconformity, founding member and more of rock makeover.” She also took up painting, theare tackledall-female with band humor Pulsallama and absurdity (which ingrew Ann out of and began a series of portraits of many of the ClubMagnuson’s 57’s “Junior Vandemonium League,” the(and Ladies pop singer Auxiliary Meat of women featured in her online Women in L.A. theLoaf Lower plays herEast beau!). Side) and The half connection of the psych-rock between Punk Archive (http://alicebag.com/women-in- duohow Bongwater.the music we As listen such, to music contributes factored to heavily how la-punk/), which she began exhibiting in 2014. intowe view many the of world her performances, is indicated in both the large-scale literally and In Danger Came Smiling, the exhibition catches asphotographs a culture with where exciting Xaviera feminine Simmons archetypes stands in to up with Bag in 2016 with the video for the song reference.different topographies With Vandemonium holding Magnuson’siconic women’s pop- “He’s So Sorry,” from her recently-released culturalalbums ininspirations front of her came face. full-circle, Activism, feminismperforming eponymous solo debut. Both the look and sound aand grab-bag music are of characters accompanied she’d by honeda drumbeat in clubs and of the video speak to layers of references from andhumorous performance-art phrases about spaces self-exploration for over a decade and in women’s music history. On the one hand, “He’s thisprotest truly in “made-for-TV” Wynne Greenwood’s special video commissioned Libber. So Sorry” celebrates the working-class women andDamali broadcast Abram’s by zine HBO is ain nod 1987. to riot grrrl’s third of color in glamorous, post-WWII “girl groups” wave feminism and that movement’s sharing of like The Ronettes, as well as their inspiration to Atthe the personal same time as a asform NYC’s of activism. downtown And scene lastly, subsequent generations of women musicians; on emerged,DISBAND’s Los core Angeles tenet thatwas nurturingthey are a itsband own where the other, the song’s theme of domestic violence feministno one plays punk instruments community, is led about by trailblazers as punk rock like as is a reminder of the ugly, behind-the-scenes Chican@it gets! A l i c e B a g (born Alicia Armendariz). realities these women often endured breaking Co-founder of the legendary L.A. band The through in the music industry. (In the case of Bags (with best friend Patricia Morrison, later The Ronettes, producer Phil Spector’s well- CURATOR ESSAY CURATOR ESSAY

feminist punk band Ludus, led by artist Linder In the words of its founder, the “all-girl Sterling. Emerging in the first wave of punk in the conceptual art punk band” D I S B A N D was 1970s—where her Dada-inspired collage work first started in New York City by feminist artist Martha gained renown through her fanzines and album- Wilson in 1978, two years after she founded the cover designs for now-legendary bands like The art space and archive Franklin Furnace. Its core Buzzcocks and Magazine—Sterling’s work is a members were Wilson and fellow artists Ilona pioneering example of the approaches at play in Granet, Donna Henes and Diane Torr, and the this exhibition. late writer Ingrid Sischy. (Its earliest incarnations also occasionally included artists Barbara Ess, Danger Came Smiling begins chronologically with Daile Kaplan, and Barbara Kruger.) The group art/music hybrids to come out of this moment, amicably dissolved in 1982, but reunited in 2008 like New York post-punks DISBAND and Ann for the Brooklyn Museum of Art opening of WACK! Magnuson and L.A. Chican@ rocker Alice Bag, Art and the Feminist Revolution, and have been who took inspiration from earlier waves of the performing together ever since. Their songs activist movements that preceded them, even were performed mostly acapella, with elaborate as they used pop-music sounds, styles, and and often comical choreography, occasionally references to critique those movements’ myopia with minimalist percussive accompaniment from or academicism. The show then moves onto props and costumes. (Including, memorably, these artists’ ongoing inspiration to emerging a bra with cups made of hotel call bells.) In artists today in the wake of Riot Grrrl: Damali Damaliaddition Abrams to the vintage ephemera from their Abrams, Wynne Greenwood (AKA Tracy + The Aroundearliest theperformances Way Girl, Vol. on I ,display, 2014/2016 Danger Came Eleanor King Plastics), Eleanor King, Shizu Saldamando, and BlackSmiling and includes White ‘zinevintage video of the song Record Steps (to the glass ceiling), 2016 Xaviera Simmons, all of whom use music in their “EveryCourtesy Day, of Same the artist Old Way,” as well as a 2014 Vinyl records work as a seductive form of joyful protest that performance of “Every Girl,” which share a Courtesy of Diaz Contemporary, Toronto ON the artist and author Emily Roysdon has called mantra-like repetition of lyrics meant to draw “ecstatic resistance.” attention to the seemingly eternal cycles of women’s oppression, even as their expression *** serves as a prayer for change.

A n n M a g n u s o n emerged from the same downtown scene as DISBAND, using song, CURATOR ESSAY CURATOR ESSAY

feminist punk band Ludus, led by artist Linder In the words of its founder, the “all-girl Sterling. Emerging in the first wave of punk in the conceptual art punk band” D I S B A N D was 1970s—where her Dada-inspired collage work first started in New York City by feminist artist Martha gained renown through her fanzines and album- Wilson in 1978, two years after she founded the cover designs for now-legendary bands like The art space and archive Franklin Furnace. Its core Buzzcocks and Magazine—Sterling’s work is a members were Wilson and fellow artists Ilona pioneering example of the approaches at play in Granet, Donna Henes and Diane Torr, and the this exhibition. late writer Ingrid Sischy. (Its earliest incarnations also occasionally included artists Barbara Ess, Danger Came Smiling begins chronologically with Daile Kaplan, and Barbara Kruger.) The group art/music hybrids to come out of this moment, amicably dissolved in 1982, but reunited in 2008 like New York post-punks DISBAND and Ann for the Brooklyn Museum of Art opening of WACK! Magnuson and L.A. Chican@ rocker Alice Bag, Art and the Feminist Revolution, and have been who took inspiration from earlier waves of the performing together ever since. Their songs activist movements that preceded them, even were performed mostly acapella, with elaborate as they used pop-music sounds, styles, and and often comical choreography, occasionally references to critique those movements’ myopia with minimalist percussive accompaniment from or academicism. The show then moves onto props and costumes. (Including, memorably, these artists’ ongoing inspiration to emerging a bra with cups made of hotel call bells.) In artists today in the wake of Riot Grrrl: Damali Damaliaddition Abrams to the vintage ephemera from their Abrams, Wynne Greenwood (AKA Tracy + The Aroundearliest theperformances Way Girl, Vol. on Idisplay,, 2014/2016 Danger Came Eleanor King Plastics), Eleanor King, Shizu Saldamando, and SmilingBlack and includes White vintage‘zine video of the song Record Steps (to the glass ceiling), 2016 Xaviera Simmons, all of whom use music in their “EveryCourtesy Day, of Same the artist Old Way,” as well as a 2014 Vinyl records work as a seductive form of joyful protest that performance of “Every Girl,” which share a Courtesy of Diaz Contemporary, Toronto ON the artist and author Emily Roysdon has called mantra-like repetition of lyrics meant to draw “ecstatic resistance.” attention to the seemingly eternal cycles of women’s oppression, even as their expression *** serves as a prayer for change.

A n n M a g n u s o n emerged from the same downtown scene as DISBAND, using song, CURATOR ESSAY CURATOR ESSAY

like the Pistols’ debut (along with those by The cliques at their infancy. Influential studio artists Clash, Talking Heads and Suicide), it was also to come out of this moment, like Cindy Sherman the summer of the New York Blackout that and Barbara Kruger, reflected an academically- catalyzed both the street-party culture and the learned feminist theory in artwork shown in skill-development of hip-hop’s earliest DJs and dedicated art galleries. But others sought wilder MCs. And the characteristically angular, cut- outlets and wider audiences by starting clubs, and-paste, genre-bending sensibilities of punk bands, record labels and production collectives and hip-hop music extended to the aesthetics for messier, even conflicted statements of their that surrounded them: not only sounds, but feminist aims in music, art, film, performance, also styles and media were mixing and merging, publishing—Magnuson, Lydia Lunch, Adele Bertei, exemplified in the creative culture of New York Beth B, Mary Harron—sometimes all at once, as City’s downtown scene in the years that followed. in Lizzie Borden’s film Born in Flames, which used In this community, venues like the Mudd Club, members of this community as actors in her film’s Club 57, and Negril and galleries like Artists Space, staging of a queer, feminist, class/race revolution Alice Bag Fun, and Gracie Mansion all hosted exhibitions, by way of battling poet-DJs on pirate women’s He’s So Sorryconcerts,, 2016 and DJ sets at this moment when radio stations. Years later, writer and Mudd Club Video with soundpopular music was emerging as its own radical regular Kathy Acker would advise the young Running time:genre 00:04:28 of art. By the time these artists were feminist art student Kathleen Hanna: “If you want Courtesy of“discovered” the artist by the art establishment in the Wynnepeople Greenwoodto hear what you’re doing…you should be 1980s, they were as likely to present their work Libberin a band.”, 2004 Hanna proceeded to become a prime at the Danceteria as the Whitney Museum (as Videomover with in what sound soon became known as the 1990s Ann Magnuson did her “Tribute to Muzak” in the RunningRiot Grrrl time: movement 00:03:52 by way of her band Bikini elevators of both institutions). CourtesyKill, and continues of the artist performing agit-pop in bands like Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. From the start, queer artists and artists of color, and also women were integral to these Danger Came Smiling brings together work by scenes—indeed, each one of the DIY venues contemporary North American artists whose above were founded or run by women—many work came from or speaks to this history in their of whom either openly embraced or took for use of popular music as a medium, subject, and granted the feminist activism that helped fuel reference point for feminist art. The exhibition the egalitarian spirit of these new creative takes the title of an album by the unabashedly CURATOR ESSAY CURATOR ESSAY

like the Pistols’ debut (along with those by The cliques at their infancy. Influential studio artists Clash, Talking Heads and Suicide), it was also to come out of this moment, like Cindy Sherman the summer of the New York Blackout that and Barbara Kruger, reflected an academically- catalyzed both the street-party culture and the learned feminist theory in artwork shown in skill-development of hip-hop’s earliest DJs and dedicated art galleries. But others sought wilder MCs. And the characteristically angular, cut- outlets and wider audiences by starting clubs, and-paste, genre-bending sensibilities of punk bands, record labels and production collectives and hip-hop music extended to the aesthetics for messier, even conflicted statements of their that surrounded them: not only sounds, but feminist aims in music, art, film, performance, also styles and media were mixing and merging, publishing—Magnuson, Lydia Lunch, Adele Bertei, exemplified in the creative culture of New York Beth B, Mary Harron—sometimes all at once, as City’s downtown scene in the years that followed. in Lizzie Borden’s film Born in Flames, which used In this community, venues like the Mudd Club, members of this community as actors in her film’s Club 57, and Negril and galleries like Artists Space, staging of a queer, feminist, class/race revolution Alice Bag Fun, and Gracie Mansion all hosted exhibitions, by way of battling poet-DJs on pirate women’s He’s So Sorryconcerts,, 2016 and DJ sets at this moment when radio stations. Years later, writer and Mudd Club Video with soundpopular music was emerging as its own radical regular Kathy Acker would advise the young Running time:genre 00:04:28 of art. By the time these artists were feminist art student Kathleen Hanna: “If you want Courtesy of“discovered” the artist by the art establishment in the Wynnepeople Greenwoodto hear what you’re doing…you should be 1980s, they were as likely to present their work Libberin a band.”, 2004 Hanna proceeded to become a prime at the Danceteria as the Whitney Museum (as Videomover within what sound soon became known as the 1990s Ann Magnuson did her “Tribute to Muzak” in the RiotRunning Grrrl time: movement 00:03:52 by way of her band Bikini elevators of both institutions). Kill,Courtesy and continues of the artist performing agit-pop in bands like Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. From the start, queer artists and artists of color, and also women were integral to these Danger Came Smiling brings together work by scenes—indeed, each one of the DIY venues contemporary North American artists whose above were founded or run by women—many work came from or speaks to this history in their of whom either openly embraced or took for use of popular music as a medium, subject, and granted the feminist activism that helped fuel reference point for feminist art. The exhibition the egalitarian spirit of these new creative takes the title of an album by the unabashedly CURATOR ESSAY CURATOR ESSAY

more broadly—was justifiably looked upon with yarn about her feminist resistance to the first Sex greater suspicion. As powerfully as women were Pistols LP released that year, reviled by what she often allowed to express themselves in pop music, first sees as the “fascist” tendencies and “heavy in order to make it past the sexist gatekeepers overlay of misogyny” of the earliest punk bands. who controlled the performance spaces, record But her revulsion slowly gives way as this music companies, and broadcast media, too often seeps under her skin. Never Mind the Bollocks led women were expected to make themselves her to return to Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, the conventionally attractive and compliant to men Stones’ Exile on Main Street, then to Bessie Smith, in both their looks and their sound. And, while and then back to the piles of punk albums and the women’s movement of the 1960s and early singles that had been languishing, unlistened-to, ‘70s held up for the cause many performers who— at her apartment—many themselves inclusive of like the second wave of feminism itself—came women, in bands like X-Ray Spex and the Rezillos. out of earlier protest movements, feminists The essay builds up to a remarkable reevaluation in the postwar era remained justifiably wary of her second-wave feminist experiences, of the pleasures of popular culture, with its including the music of many of the women commercially-driven need to cultivate the kind of artists who, punk led her to realize, had “merely desire and dissatisfaction that lead to conformity switched from trying to please men to trying to and consumption. And, yet, wasn’t the feminist please other women.” Punk—what she called “the movement itself dedicated to the cultivation of extremity of its disgust”—would become to Willis desire and dissatisfaction among the masses—in the catalyst to a soul-shaking, feminist paradox: its own case, leading to dissent? that “music that boldly and aggressively laid out what the singer wanted, loved, hated—as good It took until the late 1970s for one of their own to rock and roll did—challenged me to do the same, analyze this conundrum, when music journalist and so, even when the content was antiwoman, and (with Shulamith Firestone) Redstockings co- antisexual, in a sense antihuman, the form founder Ellen Willis confronted the unsatisfying encouraged my struggle for liberation.” DISBANDconservatism of the “womyn’s” music and Ann Magnuson DISBANDfestivals thatin concert had grown at P.S. out 1, ofOctober her generation’s 21, 1979 TheMade fact for that TV, 1984Willis published this piece in the Twoefforts. Black In andher white1977 essay photographs for the Village Voice Digitalauspicious transfer year of of VHS 1977 video is significant. with sound Besides “BeginningCourtesy of to DISBAND See the Light,” (itself named after Runningthis being time: the legendary00:15:00 year that punk broke a Velvet Underground song) she deftly unwinds a Courtesyinto the popular of the artist consciousness with albums CURATOR ESSAY CURATOR ESSAY

more broadly—was justifiably looked upon with yarn about her feminist resistance to the first Sex greater suspicion. As powerfully as women were Pistols LP released that year, reviled by what she often allowed to express themselves in pop music, first sees as the “fascist” tendencies and “heavy in order to make it past the sexist gatekeepers overlay of misogyny” of the earliest punk bands. who controlled the performance spaces, record But her revulsion slowly gives way as this music companies, and broadcast media, too often seeps under her skin. Never Mind the Bollocks led women were expected to make themselves her to return to Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, the conventionally attractive and compliant to men Stones’ Exile on Main Street, then to Bessie Smith, in both their looks and their sound. And, while and then back to the piles of punk albums and the women’s movement of the 1960s and early singles that had been languishing, unlistened-to, ‘70s held up for the cause many performers who— at her apartment—many themselves inclusive of like the second wave of feminism itself—came women, in bands like X-Ray Spex and the Rezillos. out of earlier protest movements, feminists The essay builds up to a remarkable reevaluation in the postwar era remained justifiably wary of her second-wave feminist experiences, of the pleasures of popular culture, with its including the music of many of the women commercially-driven need to cultivate the kind of artists who, punk led her to realize, had “merely desire and dissatisfaction that lead to conformity switched from trying to please men to trying to and consumption. And, yet, wasn’t the feminist please other women.” Punk—what she called “the movement itself dedicated to the cultivation of extremity of its disgust”—would become to Willis desire and dissatisfaction among the masses—in the catalyst to a soul-shaking, feminist paradox: its own case, leading to dissent? that “music that boldly and aggressively laid out what the singer wanted, loved, hated—as good It took until the late 1970s for one of their own to rock and roll did—challenged me to do the same, analyze this conundrum, when music journalist and so, even when the content was antiwoman, and (with Shulamith Firestone) Redstockings co- antisexual, in a sense antihuman, the form founder Ellen Willis confronted the unsatisfying encouraged my struggle for liberation.” DISBANDconservatism of the “womyn’s” music and Ann Magnuson DISBANDfestivals that in concert had grown at P.S. out 1, ofOctober her generation’s 21, 1979 TheMade fact for that TV, 1984Willis published this piece in the Twoefforts. Black In andher 1977white essay photographs for the Village Voice Digitalauspicious transfer year ofof VHS1977 video is significant. with sound Besides “BeginningCourtesy of to DISBAND See the Light,” (itself named after Runningthis being time: the legendary00:15:00 year that punk broke a Velvet Underground song) she deftly unwinds a Courtesyinto the popular of the artist consciousness with albums CURATOR ESSAY CURATOR ESSAY

like DEVO and Kraftwerk treated their music beauty confirms within its listeners the sense as performance art, blurring the lines between that this moment of listening has within it the popular music and visual art in ways that have promise of things being right, of pieces fitting profoundly affected contemporary art ever together, of wholes emerging out of so much since. This seemingly effortless crossing of the more than assembled riffs and rhythms. That era’s art/music and high/low divides, as Gendron affect is powerful. documents, was in reality born of “aggressive struggles on the part of popular culture for For feminist and womanist thinkers coming out cultural empowerment.” Moreover, these of the civil-rights movement, popular music was struggles often sprang from the era’s civil rights, also a place of some parity. Whereas women feminist, and queer movements, whose influence were often denied positions of authority in in the ‘70s began simultaneously splintering and their organizations, as musicians they spoke seeping into new expressions in everyday life. as “queens:” is it even possible to think about postwar protest movements without Odetta, The importance of music in the American Joan Baez, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin? civil-rights movement is, of course, much- documented: while communities of color were Similarly, the gay rights movement—coalescing of kept from decision-making positions in politics, necessity out of clandestine, more private spaces even denied representation in their voting like clubs and discos—documented its own rights, they were both visible and organized in resistance in music, often through songs that the period’s popular music, which also provided spoke in coded terms about the community’s strength and sustenance. As a result, music— oppression and liberation. These were sung by blues, salsa, folk, jazz, R&B, funk—was woven into performers whose lives and struggles—from Judy both the experience and history of the post- Garland to Janis Ian to Sylvester—came out of WWII battles for civil rights. As the music scholar or paralleled those of the queer listeners who Barry Shank puts it in his extraordinary book The held them up as icons of the different, but often Political Force of Musical Beauty, in this context, intersectional battles for civil and women’s rights. popular music Alas, for the women’s rights movement that Xaviera Simmons Shizu Saldamando enacts its own force, creating shared senses emerged out of and alongside these other protest Untitled (Nina), 2009 La Ana with Absu Tshirt, 2015 of the world. The experience of musical movements, popular music—like popular culture Color Photograph Colored pencil on paper Courtesy of the artist and David Castilo Gallery Courtesy of the artist CURATOR ESSAY CURATOR ESSAY

Damali Abrams DISBANDMaria Elena Buszek Around the Way Girl, Vol. I, 2014/2016 EVERY DAY, SAME OLD WAY, Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY,

Black and White ‘zine October 28, 1980

Courtesy of the artist Performance by Ilona Granet, Donna Henes, Ingrid Sischy, Diane Torr, Martha Wilson Alice Bag Video with sound He’s So Sorry, 2016 Running time: 00:01:1:53 Video with sound Courtesy of DISBAND Running time: 00:04:28 Courtesy of the artist DISBAND EVERY GIRL,Austrian Cultural Forum NY, DISBAND with poster design by Ilona Granet “Self-Timer Stories,” June 18, 2014 DISBAND AT THE DUSTBOWL, 1981 Video with sound Poster Running time: 00:08:39 Courtesy of DISBAND Courtesy of DISBAND

DISBAND DISBAND DISBAND in concert at P.S. 1, October 21, 1979 Songbook, c. 1979

Two Black and white photographs Printed songbook Courtesy of DISBAND Courtesy of DISBAND

DISBAND DISBAND DISBAND concert at the Museum of Contemporary Songbook Takeaway, c. 1979/2016 Art, Chicago, 1981 Not editioned In his book Between Montmartre and the Mudd Concert program Courtesy of DISBAND and Franklin Street Works Club, aesthetic philosopher Bernard Gendron Courtesy of DISBAND has compellingly argued that rock music took Wynne Greenwood over the avant-garde in the 1970s, holding “onto Libber, 2004 its ‘pop’ moorings while becoming ‘art.’’” In this Video with sound era, visual artists like Linder Sterling and Jean- Running time: 00:03:52 Michel Basquiat joined bands, and musicians Courtesy of the artist CHECKLIST CHECKLIST

Damali Abrams MariaDISBAND Elena Buszek Around the Way Girl, Vol. I, 2014/2016 EVERY DAY, SAME OLD WAY, Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY,

Black and White ‘zine October 28, 1980

DISBAND DISBAND DISBAND in concert at P.S. 1, October 21, 1979 Songbook, c. 1979

Two Black and white photographs Printed songbook Courtesy of DISBAND Courtesy of DISBAND

Eleanor King Xaviera Simmons Redacted Records (come up from the back), 2016 Untitled (Milli), 2009 Vinyl record sleeves, acrylic paint Color Photograph Courtesy of Diaz Contemporary, Toronto ON Courtesy of the artist and David Castilo Gallery

Eleanor King Xaviera Simmons Record Steps (to the glass ceiling), 2016 Untitled (Nina), 2009 Vinyl records Color Photograph Courtesy of Diaz Contemporary, Toronto ON Courtesy of the artist and David Castilo Gallery

Ann Magnuson Xaviera Simmons Made for TV, 1984 Untitled (Ami), 2009 Digital transfer of VHS video with sound Color Photograph Running time: 00:15:00 Courtesy of the artist and David Castilo Gallery Courtesy of the artist Xaviera Simmons Ann Magnuson Warm Leatherette, 2009 Vandemonium, 1987 Color Photograph Digital transfer of VHS video with sound Courtesy of the artist and David Castilo Gallery Running time: 00:27:21 Courtesy of the artist

Shizu Saldamando Alice Bag and Martin Crudo, 2015 Silkscreen on handkerchief Courtesy of the artist

Shizu Saldamando La Ana with Absu Tshirt, 2015 Colored pencil on paper Courtesy of the artist